Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 5.djvu/237

221 THE VALIDITY OF ATTACHMENTS. 221 for a creditor having a good commercial rating to give a satis- factory guarantee, and by so doing make a sale of his claim, as in Proctor v. The National Bank of the Republic, thereby reaping the fruits of an attachment or garnishment hastily made beyond the limits of the State. The class of creditors who will gain most will be the class who could best endure a loss ; namely, those having a large capital and extended business connections. Creditors in general will not receive so much from insolvent debtors as formerly, and the loss will fall with most certainty on those who have not sufficient credit to enable them to make hastily such a sale as is now under consideration — the very ones to whom the loss of a percentage of their claims is of greatest importance. Numerous minor questions bearing on this topic are arising, and are likely to continue to arise, in Massachusetts. For instance, Can a creditor, having obtained an advantage, as in Lawrence v. Batch- eller or Proctor v. The National Bank of the Republic, subse- quently prove other claims in the Insolvency Court on the same footing as other creditors? Will the court grant an injunction at the suit of a debtor who has made a composition with his creditors under the statute authorizing that mode of settlement? How far will the fact that an injunction of the attaching creditor will prob- ably cause an attachment to be made by a foreign creditor, who cannot be enjoined, affect the case? And will the court grant a mandatory injunction in such a case, ordering the attachment suit to be prosecuted to judgment for the benefit of the assignees? But, however these points may be decided, it is now impossible to prevent an active and well-advised creditor who is able to give a satisfactory guarantee from obtaining an advantage at the ex- pense of other creditors. The only conclusion to be drawn is that satisfactory distribution of property in bankruptcy can only be made by means of a National Bankruptcy Act. Samuel Williston. Cambridge.